Nulaa'ulair
Nulaa Ulair (Nulaa'ulair in Twi'lek space) is a female Tolian Twi'lek freelancer currently operating out of Republic space. With a reputation for craftiness, Nulaa has orchestrated and carried out several operations—both legal and illegal—and proven herself to be an effective marksman, pilot, and leader. Despite her visibility, little is known about the early life of the Twi'lek "professional problem solver". Reports first mentioning her begin nine years ago, when she was positively identified as a member of a small crime syndicate run by Tarna Darro. Since that time, Ulair has made a name for herself doing everything from thuggery, to smuggling, to privateering, to consulting. Ulair's illegal activities have occasionally made her a target for the Republic in addition to her underworld rivals, although she has, for the most part, been able to avoid the negative consequences of this. And while her privateering work for the Republic has garnered her a bounty with the Empire, it has done little more than offer inconvenient complications to her operations within Imperial space, on the rare occasion when she chooses to conduct business there. However, in addition to her criminal past, Ulair has also been notable in regards to her vigilantism. Ulair has been connected to several small slave rebellions on the edge of Empire territory, and, while not entirely legal, has been known to smuggle fugitive slaves into Republic space. She is also credited with single-handedly taking down a mid-level slavers' ring on Ryloth (however, she is also a suspect in the systematic and brutal murder of the members of the aforementioned ring). There is some speculation that Ulair's illegal activities are used to fund her vigilantism, but this is unconfirmed. Ulair has also shown a willingness to work with the Republic, having been both a consultant and hired freelancer on several Republic missions. Ulair also has ties to the Jedi, but in what capacity and extent is little known. It is claimed that these ties and her previous work with the Republic has aided in her ability to avoid incarceration, but it has yet to be seen how long this protection—and her luck—will last. Biography First Appearance The first true records of Nulaa Ulair begin nine years ago when she appeared as paramour to smuggler and hired gun Regor Conoure. Regor, in the employ of small time crime lord Tarna Darro, operated primarily out of the mid rim, and it was at his side that Nulaa began to pick up the tricks and skills that would serve her later in her career. Regor was not particularly kind, however. While she served as his paramour and, later on, as his co-pilot, Regor’s relationship with Nulaa was exploitative—it was only a matter of time before he tired of her and, at best, left her to fend for herself on a backwater planet. Not waiting for that time to come, Nulaa began to ingratiate herself with Regor’s contacts, quietly proving her worth to them behind his back. So when Regor died in a minor explosion aboard his ship (a maintenance issue gone wrong—one during which Nulaa was carefully sure to be seen elsewhere), it was only with minor hassle that Nulaa slipped into his vacated position. Despite some protest to the contrary, Nulaa assumed possession of Regor’s ship, defending her right to it with everything from words—who better than Regor’s lover to gain his ship?—to violence. The ship was quick and quiet. After an appropriate period of “mourning”, Nulaa renamed her ''The Naera—the Ryl word for “sprite”. Nulaa proved herself to be a vicious businesswoman. She built herself a reputation of cunning, guile, and ruthlessness—but also one of picking out and picking up talent. Her effectiveness at her job eventually caught the eye of Darro herself, and, in three years, she had become part of Darro’s ring of lieutenants. It was during this time that Nulaa underwent the incredibly painful process of tattooing her signature stripes across her head and lekku—a feat she accomplished without a single complaint merely to prove she was "tough". Things changed for Nulaa, however, when a larger rival syndicate tired of Darro’s encroaching grasp, and placed a hit on the crime lord. Darro was murdered, the ring was shattered, and the broken syndicate left with two choices—be absorbed in pieces by the larger crime rings around them, or to try and make it on their own. Darro’s legacy was held together briefly by her first lieutenant Fedre Nash, but Nulaa spurned his efforts to recruit her back into the fold. Turning her back on Darro’s legacy, Nulaa took a small, personal crew of handpicked former associates, and struck off into the Talcene sector. The Talcene Sector Bereft of support, Nulaa and her crew jumped from job to job, picking up contracts and hitting targets as they were able. It was a hard life—sometimes they only just scraped by. Under Nulaa's leadership, however, the crew began to make a name for themselves, eventually garnering themselves a reputation for discretion, competency, and efficiency. Nulaa was eventually able to purchase a second ship, the Dekae, and fund a crew for her. Unfortunately, with the return of profits and ease of operation, Nulaa's attention began to turn elsewhere. Jobs began to take them farther and father galactic north, to the edge of Imperial space. Targets and operations sometimes appeared to have little monetary or reputation-enhancing value, and yet were deemed critical. After some months of this, Nulaa was eventually confronted by her second-in-command and current lover, Serool'itak, who demanded to know the reason behind Nulaa's unprofitable behaviour. With some needling, Nulaa admitted the truth—she was gathering intelligence for a secret operation: to free someone important to her from slavery within Imperial space. While Serooli was sympathetic to this situation, it was clear that she was frustrated with the setting aside of profits and the comforts that those profits brought. Nulaa left to complete her mission. She returned almost a month later to discover that the Dekae had been stolen and her crew murdered. While her mission had been a success, her absence had left her people vulnerable to their enemies—Serooli had not been able to protect them. Enraged and bereaved, Nulaa set out to find those responsible and make them pay. The Cartel Corporation Nulaa's retribution against those who had murdered her crew did not go unnoticed. Unfortunately for her, revenge had caught a spy in the crossfire—a spy in the services of the Cartel Corporation: a loose conglomerate of lesser Hutt Cartel members and their associates operating on the edge of Republic and Hutt space. Determined to find the perpetrator of her agent's murder, Luyo Tiaxihar, a Mirialan Cartel Corporation associate, took it upon herself to investigate the situation. As Nulaa's movements and motivations became more clear to her, Luyo made an executive decision. Instead of bringing down the quiet wrath of the Corporation, she approached Nulaa and made an offer: a place within the Corporation's ranks. Nulaa was bereft of support and had lost one of her ships. With no crew, no money, and many of her bridges burned, she did what she thought best—she accepted Luyo's offer. Working for the Hutts—even peripherally—irked Nulaa, but the benefits far outweighed any annoyances. Her postition with the Corporation put her beyond the reach of most of her enemies, and provided her with a steady—if not hefty—salary. Acknowledging her skills, Nulaa was given command over a new crew and a set to work with a small scale operation along the Republic-Cartel border near the Galactic Core. As she had done with Tarna Darro's syndicate, Nulaa rose through the Corporation's ranks, eventually finding herself in the position of liaison to the Republic. Officially the position called for consultation and advisement on Republic operations and acting as representative of the Corporation on joint operations, but, unofficially, it also included information gathering and exchange and mission running that technically fell outside Republic jurisdiction (and in line with Corporation interests). Nulaa also collaborated unofficially with Jedi Master Kayllan Moonwood, Kayllan providing Jedi support for Nulaa's missions, and Nulaa screening and providing contacts to the seedier side of galactic society. Nulaa recruited and trained many Corporation members at this time, including the man who would eventually become her successor in the Corporation: Xerxesian Emmanuel. It was at this time that she also came into contact and befriended two other individuals who would become important figures in her life. The first, Starschwar Senal, a pilot and executive officer of the mercenary Shadow Company, and Brinla Ruun, a private in the Republic army who Nulaa helped rescue from kidnapping on Nar Shaddaa. Her time with the Corporation did not end well, however. Her contacts within the Republic military were limited, so when Kayllan introduced one Major Ricker to her as a potential informant willing to work with her and Kayllan's underhanded and sometimes highly illegal missions, Nulaa didn't question it—at least not enough. Ricker, for his part, was in truth part of a conspiracy within the Republic whose aim was to appropriate and control criminals considered to be of use within the Republic. Ricker recorded the meeting in which Nulaa outlined her operation, and, with that evidence against her, Nulaa was arrested in the Coruscant spaceport not two weeks later. The Blue List While incarcerated, Nulaa was given two choices: face judgement for her crimes, or join the Blue List. The Blue List, it was explained, was a list of Republic criminals who had been "re-purposed" to serve the Republic. While to all the galaxy Nulaa would appear as she had been before, she would in fact be secretly working for the members of the conspiracy. Check ins were mandatory. Targets were chosen for her, and she had no ability to refuse. No matter the danger or the difficulty, if the conspirators said 'jump', her only available response was 'how high'. For almost a year, Nulaa slaved as a double agent of the Republic, spying on the Cartel Corporation and its associates. Hutts, however, were not known for their leniency in the face of betrayal, a fact of which she was well aware. With painstaking positioning, Nulaa arranged for one of her operations to fail miserably, leading to the Corporation's furious dismissal of her—a dismissal barely turned from execution by the intervention of Xerxesian and Tiaxihar—and rendering herself useless to the Blue List conspirators as an asset against the Corporation. Xerxesian's defense of her, and the dissolution of their superior/subordinate relationship, eventually led to their pursual of a romantic entanglement. Nulaa's success at manipulating the conspirators emboldened her try and gain more freedom for herself. While the loss of the Corporation's support stung and left her more vulnerable to her old enemies, she was not entirely without the resources she had amassed while working within the Republic. With aid from Xerxesian—although he was unaware to what end she used his information and assistance—Nulaa began to piece together the ring of conspirators who allowed the Blue List to function as it did. This culminated in a heist at the Senate Tower on Coruscant wherein Nulaa stole the Blue List itself—the names of all the criminals being used as agents of the conspirators. The heist did not go entirely as planned, however. The Republic was able to detect the breach and began a hunt to discover and recover what was stolen. And what Nulaa learned from her incursion only made things worse: the Republic knew of the location of her mother—a secret she had committed murder to preserve—and were watching her to use as collateral in the event Nulaa went rogue. Knowing that the Blue List conspirators would be watching her closely for sign of her involvement with the heist or impending betrayal, Nulaa reached out to the two beings she trusted not to betray her: Xerxesian Emmanuel and Starschwar Senal. Subverting the Blue List With promises of help from both Xerxesian and Starschwar, Nulaa set about planning a covert operation to free her mother from the watchful eye of her Republic captors. Operations, however, required credits. Using her severance from Corporation resources as a cover, Nulaa began taking on as many freelance missions as she was able. It was through this action that she came into contact with human smuggler J'aycen Aguara. While she had been aware of J'aycen through her friendship with Republic trooper Brinla Ruun, it was the first job on which she'd personally worked with the man. The mission was a success, but not without its cost. J'aycen was to smuggle weaponry to the isolated Republic forces on the war torn world of Denova—an incredibly dangerous task considering the Imperial blockade of the world. Aware the danger and difficulty of the mission, J'aycen hired Nulaa and one of her crew members, Corro Dan—also known as "Twitch"—to assist. J'aycen plotted a hidden route through an asteroid field to subvert the blockade, but a ship malfunction made navigating the field difficult. Twitch was killed when the ship narrowly scraped through an opening between two asteroids. The now duo landed on Denova, delivered the weapons, and made their escape without further incidentent. After collecting her payment, Nulaa left to mourn Corro, taking comfort in company of her friend and somewhat lover, Xerxesian. Nulaa's interactions with J'aycen Aguara did not end at Denova, however. She found employment with the smuggler later again on Tatooine, during a Rakghoul outbreak that left them both stranded on the planet. J'aycen feared for the safety of his friend, Vemill Lind, and asked Nulaa to track, find, and ensure he came to no significant harm. Vemill Lind, better known as Veelind, was attempting to place a tracker on the ship of Darth Trugen, J'aycen's brother, who was also trapped on planet. Nulaa succeeded in finding Veelind and assisting him in completing his task, Veelind expressing mild disappointment when he discovered that she had come for him not because she worried about him, but because she had been paid to do so. The two celebrated their victory in a dingy, nearby cantina, but the celebrations were cut short when an argument arose between the pair. Veelind stormed outside, and Nulaa, remembering her mission to keep him safe and returned to J'aycen, reluctantly followed. The two halfway made up, Nulaa convinced Veelind to return with her to J'aycen, and the pair departed. Running missions, checking in with the Blue List conspirators, and staying one step ahead of the Republic's investigation into the Senate Tower heist was no simple feat, however, and it wasn't long before Nulaa began to feel the strain of it. A spike in Cartel business kept Xerxesian busy, and so she began to take solace in the company of her friend, Starschwar. After a night of one too many tihaars on both their parts, the pair admitted to a feeling of mutual attraction. And later, after a particularly close encounter with Republic investigators, and reassurance on Nulaa's part that she was a free woman and that Xerx was aware of that, the two acted on that attraction. Nulaa departed in the morning to continue her regiment of smuggling, thuggery, and hiding, remaining largely out of contact with all parties. This work, in conjunction with what she had done with J'aycen, gave Nulaa the resources necessary to enact her plan to free her mother. She contacted Xerxesian and Starschwar, and the trio met to plan the final details. Operation Benefactor Nulaa's mother, Palakwi, lived on a farmstead on Dantooine, a planet known for its food production. To the galatic north of Dantooine, the planet Dubrillion was undergoing a brutal civil war, and in desperate need of weapons and food supplies. Refugee populations were fleeing offworld to escape the battle. And so, Nulaa laid out her plan: Xerxesian would pretend to approach the planet with the intent to pick up food supplies, sneak off to Palakwi's farmstead, then smuggle her off the planet with his cargo and head to Dubrillion. Due to the refugees fleeing Dubrillion, however, piracy had become somewhat of a problem. There was money to be made in slavery, and refugees feeling with their worldly possessions but little weaponry were prime targets. Starschwar was known for his distaste of slavery and his willingness to take on anti-slaver jobs pro bono, making him an excellent and—even better—unsurprising choice to show up in the system. While Starschwar was docked on the orbital station to "refuel" his ship before making a strike against the pirates, Xerxesian would bring in his ship to do the same. Palakwi would then be surreptitiously moved from Xerxesian's ship to Starschwar's ship. When Starschwar was finished refuelling, he would leave with none the wiser, meet up with Nulaa at predetermined coordinates, and then make a legitimate strike against the pirates in system. Xerxesian would continue to Dubrillion's surface to deliver his food supplies, keeping both parties' covers intact. Nulaa, for her part, would leave her ship, the Naera, near the Core to give the sense that she was far away from the action, while she in reality appropriated another ship to meet Starschwar at the coordinates. Starschwar and Xerxesian agreed to the plan. Before Xerxesian left, however, Nulaa gave him an item of immense personal value to use to convince her mother of her trust in him. What exactly that item was remains between the two of them. It was at this point that Nulaa entrusted her ship to Veelind—a suggestion put forward by her former employer and associate J'aycen Aguara. After his time on Tatooine, Veelind had been returned to Tython for further treatment at the hands of Jedi Healer Dassalya Nasadee. With his physical recovery complete, however, Veelind chafed at having to remain on planet and jumped at Nulaa's offer to smuggle him offworld. Extracting a promise to bring him to Tatooine once her business was complete, the pair escaped Tython, Veelind took over stewardship of the Naera, and Nulaa began her trip galatic north. The plan did not go as hoped, however. While Xerxesian was able to recover Palakwi from Dantooine, their departure was observed by Republic agents. As Xerxesian's cover required a modicum of honesty, the Republic was able to investigate and discover his projected flight plan, and increased vigilance at the orbital station over Dubrillion. Starschwar, observing this increase, was able to compensate somewhat, but the complication resulted in an altercation that left Xerxesian fleeing to the planet below and hiding from Republic patrols, and Starschwar making a hasty exit after disabling Republic craft with ion cannons. Starschwar arrived at the rendezvous coordinates to find Nulaa under attack. While her ship was lost in the escape, Starschwar was able to rescue her, and the trio—Starschwar, Nulaa, and Palakwi—made the jump to hyperspace. After arguing over the safety of her plan, Nulaa eventually convinced a reluctant Starschwar to drop her and her mother off at a nearby planet—they would make their own way to their destination from there. Even though Starschwar was one of her closest associates, she was still unwilling to let any know of the final location of her mother. Mission to Moltok Nearly a month and a half passed without word from Nulaa. Then, unannounced, Veelind received a message from her routed through her ship's communications. It was coded—all references to individuals utilized the nicknames she bestowed on them—but the intent was clear. She was in trouble. Veelind reached out to the name he recognized: J'aycen Aguara, "Flyboy". While J'aycen was unable to help himself, he put Veelind in contact with Starschwar and Xerxesian, who were able to illuminate the situation further. A plan was hatched. Through a series of unusual circumstances, Veelind was able to round up not only Xerxesian and Starschwar to assist, but also Jedi Master Kelvarius, Captain Elysindre Moonshadow, Major Enias Blacksun, and the smuggler Kjel'kia. The group flew to the planet of Moltok, where Nulaa was reputedly behind held—amongst others—as a slave. While experiencing some difficulties and setbacks throughout the mission, Nulaa and a significant number of the slaves were recovered. In private, Nulaa later admitted to Veelind that she had remained on planet in the hopes that a large enough rescue attempt to save the slaves would be made, for she had discovered early in her detainment a way to escape herself, but had been reluctant to leave them behind to their fate. It was decided that the slaves would be taken to the nearby world of Garqi, where they would be given the opportunity to begin their lives anew as free citizens. During this time, Veelind—and by proxy, Nulaa—befriended a Zabrak former slave boy by the name of Possun. Travel to Garqi and Tatooine Nulaa and Veelind began to grow close during the trip to Garqi. At a stopover on a fuelling station, however, Nulaa came across an unlikely individual: Alder Aguara, better known as Darth Trugen, on the run from Imperial authorities. While disinclined to help a Sith, Nulaa offered Alder sanctuary and transport on her ship due to her friendship with Republic trooper Brinla Ruun, who was engaged to Alder's brother, J'aycen Aguara. Alder was a relatively gracious passenger, but also a manipulative one. To punish Veelind for his actions, which had ultimately led to Alder's fall from favour with the Dark Council, Alder seduced Nulaa—an action she allowed in an attempt to keep Alder's attention fixed on her and not the innocent slaves also aboard the ship. This action strained the growing relationship between Veelind and Nulaa, although it was somewhat repaired by Nulaa's explanation of her behaviour. Alder eventually departed, the slaves were unloaded at Garqi, and Veelind and Nulaa began to repair their relationship. Holding to their agreement of passage to Tatooine as Veelind's payment for watching The Naera during Operation Benefactor, Nulaa began the long trip back across the galaxy to the desert planet. The pair began to grow close, despite Veelind's difficulty in letting go of his late wife's death, and eventually engaged in a tumultuous romance for the remainder of the trip. Veelind insistence on going alone to Tatooine, however, infuriated Nulaa. With regret, reluctance, and vehemence, the pair ended their relationship, Nulaa doing her best to ignore her fear and longing for him as he departed to the surface to face his demons. The Jedicide Crisis In which Nulaa helps someone else of out a tricky mess. While being the hero, of course. The Red Queen In which Nulaa flips off the Republic, becomes a privateer, and makes nice with the infamous leader of an intelligence network. Geerba the Hutt In which Nulaa becomes reacquainted with the worst part of her life, and Geerba becomes Nulaa Enemy #1. An Empire Amassed In which Nulaa begins consolidating her own power and carving out her piece of the galaxy. Trivia * Nulaa was the first woman to ever successfully convince Captain Enias Blacksun to dance following his transfer to Station Security, a fact that he will never admit to. * Nulaa has a habit of nicknaming those she interacts with. As of this time, only Starschwar has escaped this quirk. Category:Characters Category:Independent Category:Guild Characters Category:Twi'lek